HUNGARIAN POMPADOUR.

Hokitika Guardian, 1 February 1927, Page 1

HUNGARIAN POMPADOUR.

BERLIN, Doc. 2. The Countess Rose zu Sternau und Holienau, who was known as the Hungarian Pompadour, and who 20 years ago had courtiers, politicians, and financiers at her feet has died hero in great poverty. She was tho daughter of a smnll tradesman in a Hungarian town and became a shopgirl in Budapest, where her beauty attracted the notice of a rich financier, who provided generously for her. She was, however, lured away from her lover by a Hungarian politician who had himself fallen in love with her, and slie was soon immersed in a sea of political intrigue. Her beauty, charm of manner, and wit fitted her to be a political agent, and in that role she appeared in Vienna. There she had great success. Her lints, with flourishing ostrich feathers, became the talk of the town. She was alway seen at the races and she gave hersif the luxury of a racing stable, choosing rose and white as her racing colours. ACCUSED AS A SPY. Marriage with the impoverished Baron Sehonberge gave her a title and regularised her position. Her brilliant career was brought to ail end by the publication of an article, under the title “I Accuse.” by a Budapest newspaper in 1906, which declared that two Ministers had sent her to Vienna to intrigue against Colonel Stephen Pisza, tho former Premier. The position of the baroness became as impossible in Budapest as it was in Vienna, where she was said to lx? acting as a spy for the Hungarian Government. She settled in Berlin and married Count Wenzel zu Sternau und Hohenau, who was more interested in theosophy than in money. He died some years ago. and in spite of plucky attempts to retain her position the countess fell on hardtimes. She was a frequenter of Berlin gaming clubs, but a few people knew that the elderly woman who eagerfy watched the fall of the cards had once dazzled three capitals with her She died in an attic without a fjjjfrna.